Berner's Bay – Audobon Cruise

We saw it all! Full whale breaches, rafts of sea lion, porpoise, harbor seals, and a bunch of birds. On Saturday we took one of the annual Berner's Bay cruise sponsored by Audubon up along the coast on one of the Allen Marine Catamarans. It was a gorgeous day and the sea was pretty calm.



I've never see sealions rafting up before so this was a pretty cool sight. The naturalist on board thought that these were probably all females because they were just hanging out and there wasn't much aggression, normally shown by males. They light up with flippers out towards to sun and lean on the others to keep them up high out of the water.


There was maybe 40-50 all together some going under while others were hanging out on top of the water. These next two shots were through my binoculars so they are a bit shaky and out of focus. Its hard to keep two pieces of equipment completely steady while riding on a boat!


There is a flipper being lifted up on the left side of this picture.


We saw about 3 different groups of sealions. We also went by the sealion resting spot on Benjamin Island and saw about 75 females and male sealions hanging out on the rocks. It was amazing how different in size the female and males are - some of the males were 3-4 times larger.

And we saw whales - a bunch of them really close. And we saw a whale do two full body breaches and one beach where they came out nose first. But, I wasn't quick enough with the camera!




This is more what it looked like: Whale Breach 1 Whale Breach2

Bright Blue Sky at Berner's Bay

We enjoyed a Saturday Audubon trip from Auke Bay to Berner's Bay on a catamaran a couple weekends past. It was a bright-blue-sky day with a gentle breeze and fresh snow on the mountains. For a donation of only $40 we got a 4-hour cruise up Lynn Canal. Plus we had lost of Audubon members on board who are much better spotting and identifying the birds then I am. It was a little chilly while we were underway but when we stopped it was warm.

We saw Bald Eagle, Herring Gull, Barrow's Goldeneye, North American Crow, Canada Goose, White-winged Scoters, Surf Scoter, Pelagic Cormorant, Bonaparte Gull, Rock Sandpiper, Oyster Catcher, Black Turnstone, Pidgeon Gullimonte, and Marbled Murrelettes.

Claudia came down to spent the weekend with us and we had a lot of fun catching up on things. Here Claudia is enjoying the sunshine while keeping an eye on the captain in the boathouse.


I'd like to say that this is me in this kayak but I was on the bigger boat enjoying the calm seas and the blue skies wishing I had my transparent bottom kayak so I could join these folks.


Along for the ride were some local friends– here's Terry and me. We have some awesome binoculars, don't we!